Certain legal entities are negotiating the exchange of blocked assets with foreign counterparties. Such a statement, according to RBC, was made by Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev.
He noted that he sees prospects in the scenario of the exchange of frozen assets of Russian and foreign investors in the event that sanctions are lifted. Moiseev explained that the decisions taken by the Ministry of Finance led to a kind of “negotiating leverage.”
According to a representative of the Ministry of Finance, now the volume of Russian assets that are frozen and the assets of unfriendly non-residents frozen in Russia are approximately the same. Moreover, Moiseev noted, “separate echoes in certain particular situations” of the exchange of assets with representatives of Western countries are now noticeable.
Relevant negotiations are conducted by small Russian banks, which held sub-correspondent accounts through one of the large banks, which had direct correspondent relations in Europe, the Deputy Minister of Finance explained.
“All this is now blocked, there is external management, with officials of the country in which this branch of the bank is located. And, in fact, small banks can now agree to withdraw their small funds from there by exchanging them for frozen foreign money. Separate local things like this happen, ”said Moiseev. According to him, the Russian side does not interfere in any way with the exchange of assets.
Earlier, the Bank of Russia indicated that it considers the exchange of assets or their offset with foreign counterparties as ways to unblock.
At the end of January, the Central Bank estimated the volume of blocked assets of Russian legal entities and individuals at 5.7 trillion rubles. Only foreign shares owned by private investors are blocked in the amount of 320 billion rubles.
Source: Rosbalt
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